FIG. 1 shows a vehicle including double rear doors, and the illustrated rear doors include a right door 3 that is turnably connected to the right edge of a door opening edge 1 formed on the rear surface of the vehicle body by hinges 2, and that opens/closes the right section of the door opening edge 1, and a left door 4 that is turnably connected to the left edge of the door opening edge 1 similarly by the hinges 2, and that opens/closes the left section of the door opening edge 1, and when closing the doors, after either the right door 3 or the left door 4 is closed first, the other door is closed.
In the doors 3 and 4, in general, their upper edges are formed by bending toward the vehicle interior side, and in order to seal between the upper edge of the door opening edge of the vehicle body and the doors 3 and 4 when closing the doors, a body weatherstrip and a main weatherstrip are mounted to the upper edge of the door opening edge shown with ‘a’ part in FIG. 1, and in order to seal between the closed right door 3 and left door 4, another door weatherstrip is mounted to the vertical edge of either the first-closing door 3 or door 4. Hereafter, these weatherstrips are explained in sequence.
The body weatherstrip 6, as shown in FIG. 2, which is a cross-sectional view on the E-E line in FIG. 1, is composed of a mounting base 11 that is mounted by insertion into a flange 9, which is mounted in a sidewall 8a of a drip channel 8 that is formed by protruding toward the outside of the vehicle from a body panel 7 on the upper edge of the door opening edge, and that forms roughly a U-shaped lateral cross section, and a hollow seal 13 that protrudes upward from the mounting base 11, and where a flange 12 on the upper door end protruding toward the vehicle interior side of the door upper edge elastically makes contact when closing the doors 3 and 4, and main weatherstrip 15 is composed of a mounting base 16 with a roughly-U-shaped cross section that is mounted by insertion into a flange 8b on the drip channel end, which is formed by protruding outward obliquely, and a hollow seal 17 that obliquely provides a protrusion outward from the mounting base 16, and that elastically makes contact with the doors 3 and 4 when closing the doors, and the body weatherstrip 6 and the main weatherstrip 15 form a double seal structure to seal between the door upper edge and the upper edge of the door opening edge of the vehicle body.
A door weatherstrip 21 is composed of an extrusion part and molded parts that are integrally formed with the extrusion part on the upper and lower ends, and in FIGS. 3 to 8, among them, in an illustrated example showing an upper end of the extrusion part 22 and a molded part 23 that is integrally formed with the upper end of the extrusion part 22, and that seals the upper end of the aligned portion of both doors 3 and 4, which is represented by the ‘a’ part in FIG. 1, the door weatherstrip 21 is mounted to the right door 3 of the right door 3 and the left door 4.
The extrusion part 22 constituting the door weatherstrip 21, as shown in FIG. 6, is composed of a mounting base 26 having a cored bar with a lateral roughly-U-shaped cross section mounted by insertion into a flange 25, which is formed with a joint part where the edges of an inner panel 3a and an outer panel 3b constituting the right door 3 overlap, and a hollow seal 27 that protrudes toward the outside of the vehicle from the mounting base 26, and if the left door 4 is closed after the right door 3 is closed, it is designed such that the periphery of the side edge of the left door 4 on the vehicle interior side elastically makes contact with the hollow seal 27.
Next, the molded part 23 is explained based upon FIG. 3 to FIG. 9. Herein, FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the overall structure of the molded part 23 that is integrally formed in the extrusion part 22; FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the molded part 23 of the door weatherstrip 21 mounted to the right door 3 viewing from the outside of the vehicle; FIG. 5 is a front view of the molded part 23 similarly mounted to the right door 3 viewing from the vehicle interior; FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the line B-B of FIG. 5; FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the line C-C of FIG. 5; and FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the right door corner portion where the molded part 23 is mounted. In the drawings showing the door weatherstrip 21, the triangle mark indicates that the side of a filled portion with black color is a molded part and the side of an unfilled portion is an extrusion part.
The molded part 23, similar to the mounting base 26 of the extrusion part 22, has an insertion groove 29 (see FIG. 7) where the flange 25 is inserted, and the sidewall 31 on the vehicle interior side forming the insertion groove 29 is formed on the extension of the interior side sidewall of the mounting base 26. Then, a wider part 31a forming a wider step from the vicinity of the extrusion part 22 to the end is formed, and the wider part 31a, as shown in FIG. 2, bends along the bend of the flange 25, which bends upward, and has a roughly-lateral transverse part 31a1 having thickness and a vertical longitudinal part 31a2, and after the molded part 23 is mounted to the inner panel 3a of the right door 3, the transverse part 31a1 is fixed to the inner panel 3a of the right door 3 on the side end of the transverse part 31a1 with a clip 33 (see FIG. 5).
The corner portion of the right door 3 where the molded part 23 is mounted, as shown in FIG. 8, includes the flange 25 and a step 35 that is formed by protruding toward the vehicle exterior continuously from the flange 25, and the step 35 is gradually diminished toward the end, and the step 35 is eliminated on the end and flange 25 is formed to be wider. The sidewall 36 of the molded part 23 on the vehicle exterior side forming the insertion groove 29 corresponding to the width of the flange 25 becomes wider on the end portion. Then, a step-state cover part 37 that is integrated with the sidewall 36 as shown in FIG. 4, and that covers the step 35 is established in the lower side part of the molded part 23.
The lower side part of the molded part 23 also includes a hollow part 38 established continuously from the hollow seal 27 of the extrusion part 22, and the closer the hollow part 38 comes to the end, the smaller its cross section gradually becomes, ultimately being eliminated in the end. Then, the sidewall 36 from the vicinity of the section corresponding to the wider part 31a to the end becomes thicker, and includes the hollow part 36a (see FIG. 7).
The molded part 23 is roughly at right angles to the longitudinal part 31a2 of the wider part 31a and is allocated to the flange 12 from the vehicle interior side, and the side surface on the vehicle exterior side includes a fin 39 that is flush with the side surface of the sidewall 36 on the vehicle exterior side, and an un-shown flange of the left door 4 is designed to cover the fin 39 and the side surface of the sidewall 36 on the vehicle exterior side when the left door 4 is closed. The fin 39 also includes a cover 41 at its side end, and the fin 39 is designed to be supported by the flange 12 by covering the side end of the flange 12 with the cover 41 (see FIG. 4).
In the state of FIG. 2 where the molded part 23 with the construction above is mounted to the right door 3, when rain water or the wash water of a car wash passes through between an end of the flange 12 and the hollow seal 13 of the body weatherstrip 6 and invades between the sidewall 31 of the molded part 23 on the vehicle interior side and the flange 12, the water invades as shown by the dotted arrow in FIG. 2 and FIG. 5, respectively, and then invades the vehicle interior from the wider part 31a of the molded part 23.
If the cover 41 that covers the flange 12 expands in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 4 and is formed to be wider, the expanded portion will be able to prevent the water from invading through between the flange 12 and the sidewall 31. However, since the cover 41 is exposed to the right door, the wider the covering 41 becomes, the more the appearance is impaired, which is not preferable.
In Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open No. S62-166128, in a seal structure where a body weatherstrip is mounted to the vehicle exterior sidewall of the drip channel, which is formed on the upper edge of the door opening on the vehicle body side to be closed and opened by the rear doors, and when a right door and a left door of double doors are closed, the flange of the left door elastically makes contact with a seal surface of the weatherstrip on the vehicle body side, and a seal material mounted to the right door elastically makes contact with the seal surface of the weatherstrip on the vehicle body side, in order to prevent water from invading the vehicle interior through the clearance surrounded by the seal surface of the body weatherstrip, the flange end surface of the left door and the seal material mounted to the right door, a drainage hole is formed in the body weatherstrip and water that may have invaded into the clearance is designed to flow out onto the drip channel through the drainage hole.